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 Plans for Friends of Music at Guilford's (FOMAG) March 28 concert at downtown Brattleboro's First Baptist Church began in 2008, when FOMAG's administrator, Joy Wallens-Penford, attended a concert in Gordon Chapel at Boston's Old South Church. The program of rarely performed liturgical chant was performed by Cappella Clausura, a women's vocal ensemble dedicated to presenting "new" music, both sacred and secular, by women composers from the past 12 centuries. Clausura, which also performed some of its repertoire with a variety of period instruments, had been receiving rave reviews on the region's Early Music scene since its first concert in 2004.
Among the dozen or so heavenly voices featured in the Cappella Clausura ensemble (all professionally credentialed) was Wallens-Penford's sister, Janna Frelich, and her Musica Romanza partner, Susan Ward, who performed in the Boston area in the '80s and '90s and had appeared in Brattleboro, too, under FOMAG's auspices. Also on the roster was Junko Watanabe, who makes her home near Boston but is a frequent soloist with Marlboro Music Festival and BMC ensembles, and is on the BMC faculty. (Junko is currently on leave from Clausura because of her packed schedule in Vermont and the Amherst area, but her long-time participation in the group is indicative of Clausura's standard of excellence.)
Since "deserving but infrequently performed music" has been Friends of Music's specialty for over four decades in this corner of Vermont, bringing Clausura to Brattleboro's sophisticated music audiences seemed an obvious choice. Further, a March (Women's History Month) performance would fit nicely with two long-established benefits for the area's Women's Crisis Center: the Women's Film Festival and "Visions" Art Exhibit & Auction of works by regional women artists. Friends of Music's board of trustees enthusiastically backed the commitment to add an element of "Women in Music" to this annual celebration of Women in the Arts for a great local cause.
The time has come at last to anticipate Clausura's arrival on Sunday, March 28. Beginning at 4:30, they will perform the rarely heard "Messa Paschale," an Easter season mass for four voices and continuo instruments by the brilliant composer Chiara Margarita Cozzolani (1602-1678), who spent her adult life as a cloistered Benedictine nun in Milan. The five-movement mass will be performed in its entirety with interwoven "propers" including sacred motets and chants by Cozzolani's esteemed colleagues from the medieval, baroque, renaissance, and modern eras, among them Hilary Tann's "Psalm 136," which has been especially rewritten for high voices.
Ten singers will perform this program in Brattleboro, as well as in Newton and Salem, Massachusetts. Instruments accompanying some of their repertoire include medieval harp, gamba, violone, theorbo, and continuo organ.
Composer Tann will also present a short pre-concert program on her life and music at 2:30 in nearby Hooker-Dunham Theater. The journey begins in her native Wales and ends at Union College in upstate New York. This journey, however, included a period of time in Japan, whose music has profoundly influenced her own. Live and recorded examples of Tann's work will be presented as part of the program, which will be followed by light refreshments.
Tickets for Hilary Tann's lecture are $5 or only $2 when combined with a ticket for the Cappella Clausura concert. Each $20 combination ticket includes a $5 donation for the Women's Crisis Center. For further information, call Friends of Music at 802-254-3600 or visit their website at www.fomag.org. Tickets may be reserved by phone or purchased in advance at BrattleboroTix.com.
Watch this space for further details about these events on March 28.
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signed up to be a poster. I've noticed that when an entry is about a
subject such as, to take this morning's example, trash, a whole bunch
of people put in comments. But when someone announces a possibly
interesting arts event, the comments thingie has a pathetic little 0 in
it. So, even tho it will seem kind of an inside job, since I'm a board
member of the organization presenting this concert, I nonetheless
want to say:
When I was a kid -- eons ago admittedly -- the conventional wisdom
was that women weren't, somehow, genetically equipped to be
composers (not to mention a lot of other professions.) There were a
couple of 19th century female composers of a sort of genteel parlor
music, and a couple 20th century ones who were OK. In fact, women
weren't known to be conductors, and major symphony orchestras were
all men -- one of the most prestigious orchestras in the world, the
Berlin Phil., only admitted women as players a few decades ago.
Now there are women conducting, playing in orchestras, forming all-
female string quartets &c. And to go along with that, there are
currently a significant number of fabulous women composers.
Even more striking is the fact that a bit of research has introduced us
to the existence of female composers as far back in history as known
male composers.
I'm proud of the fact that Friends of Music at Guilford has been the
pioneering organization in our area to present music by women
composers. In the 1970's we presented several striking pieces by
then-area composer Patsy Rogers, including some premieres. Since
then, among our 400+ premieres of works by composers from this
region have been a number of works by women in orchestral, choral,
chamber and other genres.
We presented at least one concert of music entirely by women
composers (performed entirely by women, as it happens) and I'm
pleased that we now have another such. Our concert on March 28
presents music by women composers from as early as the year 800,
and includes a work by a prominent living composer, Hillary Tann,
who will be joining us and presenting a pre-concert talk about her life
as a composer.
What a cool way to end Brattleboro's celebration of Women's History
Month, with the film festival, the exhibit and now a musical
component, performed by a skilled group of musicians. I hope some
of you will join us for the talk, the concert, or both!